Tube manufacture



Aug. 7, 1934. s. sMrrH TUBE MANUFACTURE Filed Nov. 28. 1931 R O T N E V m ,Patented Ang. 79 1934 stares PATENrJol-Fics 1,969,665 TUBE MANUFACTURE Application November 28, '1931, Serial No. 577,764 5 Claims. (Ol. 205-8) This invention relates to tube manufacture, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for treating billets for tube manufacture and is herein particularly described as applied to the treating f of billets which are intended to be made into bottles for use in the push bench process of tube manufacture.

1n the push bench process relatively short steel Y billets uniformly heated are perforated or f punched for a major portion of their length in.

a press, the bottles thus formed being placed over the end oi a mandrel and forced through a series of dies which thin and elongate the wall of the bottle to form a tube. The billets must be uni- -formly heated if accurate results are to be obtained.A and they must be of -the proper size, both as to cross sectional dimensions and length. It is important that the ends be cut oli square and this usually necessitates sawing. The cold saw- -i ing of billets is a slow and expensive procedure. n the other hand, if it isproposed to heat long lengths and then saw them dimculties are encountered in supplying all of the heated pieces to the press at the right temperature, and excesdli sive scaling is likely to result. Dimculty is also had in getting the sawed end faces to the right temperature.

li overcome these difficulties by preliminarily heating a billet, then cutting it into desired l shorter lengths and recharging the shorter lengths to a heating furnace and continuing the heating. The heating may be continued either in the same furnaceor in-a furnace separatev d vra-stage.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating present preferred embodiments of the invention,

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic layout of a part of a push bench plant and heating furnaces; and

te Figure 2 is a similar'view showing a. modification.

The push bench shown in Figure 1 isindicated generally by the reference character 2. It is pro, vided with a pusher 3 driven by a rack bar 4. the

x rackbarbeingactuated bya motor 5. The pusher 3 engages a mandrel 6.' A heated metal body B is fitted overpthe end of the mandrel and the pusher 3 is'advanced to force the mandrel through a series of dies 7 on a ring bench 8. The tube thus formed is subjected to after-operations, as described in Peters Patent No. 1,720,345.

The bottle B is formed in a press 9 and is supplied from the press to the push bench by means of a swinging arm 10. Billets are fed to the press 9 by means of a car 11, the movement of which is controlled by Winches 12. The car l1 is supplied with heated billets C from furnaces 13, and 14. The billets C, which are of the proper length for punching, are fed to the furnaces 13 and 14 through charging doors 15 and travel lengthwise of the furnaces 13 and 14 in a double row, their movement being controlled by pushers 16. As the billets approach the discharge end of the furnace they are manipulated by tongs in the hands of a workman through doors 17 so as to separate i the billets one from another as shown, insuring propersoaking. Y

The steel, as originally charged to the heating plant, is in the form of long billets D whose lengths are preferably multiples of the lengths of the billets C. The cold billets are placed on skids 18 and are fed by pushers 19 through a preliminary heating furnace 20. After the preliminary heating they are discharged from the furnace 20 by means of a pusher 21 onto a table 22. where a hot saw 23 cuts them to the desired length. 'Ihe short billets are taken by a conveyor 24 to the table 25 and thence are fed to the furnaces 13 and 14.

Figure 2 illustrates a modification whereinL cold billets are supplied to a drag-over 26 and are thence fed by means of a pusher 27 to an elongated furnace 28. The long billets are fed through the furnace by means of a pusher 29, and

after travelling about half-way through the fury y nace and being thus preliminarily heated, they are ejected one at a time by a pusher 30 through a side door 31 to a table 32. A hot saw 33 there cuts them into the desired short lengths, and after being sawed, the short pieces are fed across a conveyor 34 to a roll table 35, whereby they are conveyed back to the furnace and are fed lengthwise through the furnace in rows 36 by any desired feeding mechanism, such as that of the walking beam type. After further heating they l are ready for pressing and are discharged and taken to the press by mechanism corresponding to that described in connection with Figure 1. While I have illustrated and described present preferred embodiments of the invention, it will to form tube blanks.

2. Apparatus for tube manufacture comprising heating means for relativeLv long billets, a saw, means for transferring the billets from the heating means to the saw, the saw being effective for cutting the billets into shorter lengths, means forA further heating such shorter lengths, means for transferring the same from the saw to the lastmentioned heating means, means for punching the same to form bottles, and means for thinning and elongating said bottles to form tube blanks.

3. Apparatus for tube manufacture comprising a furnace, means for feeding billets thereto, means for drawing billets V'from the furnace, means for cutting the withdrawn billets to shorter lengths, means for charging said shorter lengths to the furnace for further heating, means for withdrawing such shorter lengths from the furnace after such further heating, means for punching the same to form bottles, and meansl for thinning and elongating said bottles to form tube blanks.

4. A method of preparing bottles for use in the push bench process of seamless tube manufacture, comprising heating a billet, sawing such billet, while hot, into billet blanks, reheating such billet blanks in the form produced by the sawing operation, and punching the billet blanks to form bottles.

5. A method of manufacturing tubes by the push bench process, comprising heating a billet, severing such billet into shorter blanks, heating such blanks, punching such blanks to form botties, and thinning and elongating such bottles in a push bench to form tubes.

' SYDNEY SMITH. 

